THE NEW ZEALAND LIBRARY & INFORMATION MANAGEMENT JOURNAL NGĀ PŪRONGO

NEW ZEALAND LIBRARY & INFORMATION MANAGEMENT JOURNAL • NGĀ PŪRONGO VOL 56, ISSUE NO. 1 • FEBRUARY/JULY 2016 NEW ZEALAND LIBRARY & INFORMATION MANAGEMENT JOURNAL • NGĀ PŪRONGO VOL 56, ISSUE NO. 1 • FEBRUARY/JULY 2016
seas who live in New Zealand, the most common birthplace
is England (Statistics New Zealand, 2013). The laws, customs
and social norms of New Zealand society as a whole are
strongly based within English traditions and history, although
re-engagement with Maori traditions and culture has been an
aspect of New Zealand civic life since the 1980s (Government
of New Zealand, 1988).
The Health of New Zealand Adults 2011/12 survey (New
Zealand Ministry of Health, 2012a) confirmed ongoing differences
between men and women in health status, health
behaviours and health service use. The survey reports that
while men have poorer health than women in many areas they
are less likely than women to have visited a primary health
care provider, practice nurse or dental health care worker in
the past year.
Of particular concern for the health and wellbeing of the
New Zealand community is that, while New Zealand women
have higher rates of diagnosed mental health conditions and
reported psychological distress, New Zealand men commit
suicide at very much higher rates. There were 380 male
suicide deaths (17.0 deaths per 100,000 male population,
age-standardised) in 2010. In the corresponding period there
were 142 female suicide deaths (6.4 deaths per 100,000 female
population, age-standardised). The ratio of male to female
suicide death rate was 2.7:1 in 2010. In the age range 15-24,
the elevated rate of male suicide is even more obvious with
23.8 deaths per 100,000 population (New Zealand Ministry of
Health, 2012b). Older men also experience high rates of suicide
showing the highest rate per 100,000 than any other age
group in New Zealand. In the year to June 2014, 29 people
over the age of 80 took their own lives; 24 were men (Blundell,
2015)
3. Method
The study was conducted using data from a pilot study
(Wellstead & Norriss, 2014) as a major tool for development
of the research instrument and recruitment. Two hundred
and eighty two (282) men took part in the pilot study. They
completed a voluntary opt-in survey that was available online.
Notwithstanding wide publicity, and that stakeholders in the
Maori and Pacific Islander community were made aware of the
survey only 17 Maori men (6%) took part in the pilot study. The
participants were predominantly of New Zealand Anglo Saxon
background. They were also mostly middle-aged, well-educated
salaried professionals with above average incomes.
This sample bias was a major limitation of the pilot study. It
was clear that further work was needed during the main study
to engage with a wider cohort of New Zealand men in terms
of their information-seeking to support wellbeing.
The research instrument for the national study was developed
using SurveyMonkey. Links to it were put on the social
media sites of many community organisations. To increase
participation of a more diverse group of men a wide-scale
marketing campaign was undertaken and employer groups
were engaged to support uptake of the survey by their staff.
Farmers, construction workers, and Maori men’s groups
were a particular focus of this marketing. New Zealand has a
plethora of regional newspapers that are widely regarded as
tools for disseminating local news and opportunities. Many of
these regional newspapers ran advertorial pieces about the
research project and community radio also supported it with
advertising and interviews.
The questions in the survey were divided into four major
categories: demographic data, availability of social support,
information-seeking behavior and two free text questions
soliciting information about strategies that could be adopted
to improve the health and wellbeing of New Zealand men
(see, Wellstead, Kovacic, & Norriss, 2015).
Four focus groups were also held (after the online survey
closed) to gather data from harder to reach groups: construction
workers, Maori men, and older men. The researchers
undertook a purposive recruitment strategy for the focus
groups using personal and professional networks.
This paper reports data from the focus groups.
Data was collected in the focus groups using the notion of
situation – gaps – uses in information-seeking. This tool has
been widely used in the sense-making models developed
and used by Dervin (see, Dervin, 1983/2000, 1998; Dervin &
Foreman-Wernet, 2003). It has been widely used by many
other scholars over many decades to explain the dilemmas
of the information-seeking experience (see as examples,
Chatman, 1991; Gaston, Dorner, & Johnson, 2015; Savolainen,
2000; Wellstead, 2011)
Sense-making focuses on how humans make and unmake,
develop, maintain, resist, destroy, and change order, structure,
culture, organisation, relationships, and the self. The
sense making theoretic assumptions are implemented
through a core methodological metaphor that pictures the
person as moving through time-space, bridging gaps and
moving on (Dervin, 2003, p. 332).
4. Recruitment, participants and context of
study
4.1 Recruitment
The national farmers’ association in New Zealand, a major
construction company, Maori men’s groups, and personal
networks were engaged to assist with the recruitment drive
for the focus groups. A group of older men who are part of a
MenNZ Shed were also invited to take part (for more information
see about MenNZ Shed see http://menzshed.org.nz/
about-us/what-is-a-shed/). A total of 41 men took part in four
focus groups.
The human resources department of the construction
company marketed the focus groups widely to staff at their
two major employment hubs. This company was keen to
use de-identified data from the study in order to build more
effective support strategies for their male employees. Staff
were offered time-off work, transport and lunch as incentives
to take part. Recruitment in one of these hubs provided
enough participants to take part in two focus groups (n=17).
Recruitment at the other hub failed to illicit participation from
enough men to hold a group in that city.
Recruitment of young Maori men (n=14) was undertaken
using personal networks within the research team and as a
“add-on” to another project with a captive audience.
Recruitment from the MenNZ Shed (n=10) was also
undertaken using personal networks and a somewhat
captive audience. Many men who attend “shed” activities
are empowered to improve the health and
wellbeing of men (often as a result of periods
of poor health and wellbeing themselves) and
those that took part in the focus group were
keen to support this endeavour.
4.2 Participants
The participants in the focus groups ranged
in age from 18 to 89 (the 89 year old was turning
90 the week after the focus group). Most participants
were in a relationship and had children.
Most stated their highest level of education
as secondary or trade. Only four men in the
groups had a degree level qualification and one
had an honours degree. These demographic
details reflect the make-up of New Zealand
society overall. New Zealand is a socially conservative
country where farming, forestry and
construction are major industries. These industries
are major employers of men throughout
the country. Degree qualification was relatively
rare until recent time. A large proportion of
the participants were construction workers for
whom a trade qualification is the normal route
to employment, even for those who move into
management positions. Maori men face considerable
educational disadvantage and their educational
status reported here reflects this.
Being a socially conservative country a large
proportion of the community live in relationships
with children. The participants in the focus
group conform to this norm. Twenty nine (29)
of the forty one participants (41) indicated that
they were in a relationship and thirty four of the
these men had children. A number of the Maori
men indicated that they had children but were
not in a relationship. This is a common pattern
of life for young Maori men. Teenage pregnancy
is high in the Maori community and the children
from these pregnancies are often raised by
their mother and her extended family (whanua)
rather than within a marriage type relationship.
Table 1.
Shed
Demographic Data for Men from MenNZ
Table 2.
Table 3.
Demographic Data for Construction Workers
Demographic Data for Maori Men
4.3 Conducting the groups
Two of the focus groups (Maori men and
older men) were held in regional centres. The
construction workers’ focus groups took place
in a major city. The groups for construction
workers and older men were facilitated by the
lead researcher (female) and a male member
of the steering group for the research project
(“Tom”). A Maori member of the research team
(male) and “Tom” conducted the focus group
with the Maori men.
At the beginning of each group the participants
were given a “sign-in” sheet where they
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